Oil and Tranny Coolers?

[TheRoaringEagle]

I have a what looks to be and old crappy tranny cooler and no oil cooler.
What tranny and oil coolers are you guys running if applicable?

Do the dual circuit coolers work well?

I was thinking of mounting a B&M supercooler to the front of my radiator and then mounting a separate engine oil cooler somewhere under the front end with an electric fan running behind it.

Would mounting both coolers in front of the radiator (covering most or all of the surface area) kill some of the efficiency of the main cooling system?

Who's got the best setup?

[gmachinz]

I don't feel a seperate, dedicated oil cooler is really needed for a street car-even a serious one but it sure doesn't hurt. As for a tranny cooler, yes you can mount one in front of the radiator-mine is. I like Perma-Cool kits myself. I have my lines running out of the tranny to the remote filter, then to the cooler and back to the tranny. I incorporated a factory 90's Eagle Talon primary engine cooling fan (wired as a pusher) to act as the tranny cooler fan-it mounts onto the Perma-Cool cooler as if it were made that way. The fan moves 1900 cfm @ 19 amps-it's strong for a little 9" fan! The remote filter block has a provision for a temp sender as well. I use Mobil 1 full synthetic and the temps (TH400 w/B&M 3000 Holeshot, shift kit) never go above 140 degrees. I have a B&M Supercooler mounted under the radiator support that I use for my power steering cooler-it mainly dissipates heat from the rush of air going under the car as it is moving. -Jabin

[TheRoaringEagle]

Hey do you happen to have any pictures of your setup? Thanks for the reply! And I heard that a good way to keep an engine happy is to keep the oil hot and the coolant cold - is that true?

My 400 has a hard time cooling itselfdown sometimes so I'm going to rework the cooling system, do you think an oil cooler would help the engine?

When will I know it's time to get a PS cooler? Would I need one for street driving? I would love to go to a track someday but my car is far from a good setup to cut corners with. Thanks again!

[gmachinz]

400's always got a bad rap for overheating issues. It's really the result of people swapping non-400 heads on the motors without drilling the steam holes and then having it run hot. If you have non-400 heads and do not know for CERTAIN that steam holes were drilled, you should pull the heads immediately before you do any damage. What happens is the walls where cylinders are the closest (scary with yours being .060-over, too) together get real hot if there are no steam holes present to dissipate the heat due to the design of the block. The reuslt is a gradual meltdown of material until you have two cylinders next to each other fighting compression with each other. If you do a compression check ratio with your motor and find major fluctuations, pull the heads. I will have to post my cooler pics up from the old site. -Jabin

[CarlC]

There's info on my website about power steering and oil coolers.

If you have good brakes and tires it's possible to have some engine damage during a track day event. My 406 sustained main bearing damage due to lack of oil pressure during hard RH turns after braking. Overfilling by one quart was a band aid that kept the pressure up but it was running on the ragged edge. A new pan and cooler fixed the problem.

Oil temps also go up in a hurry on track days.

PS coolers for GM cars is a must for track days.